Evernote: Mac App Store Has Us Rethinking Everything

The Mac App Store had a pretty big first day, racking up over a million downloads, but that’s more than just a big number for Apple… even successful software companies with proven distribution strategies are being wowed by the sort of numbers they’re seeing.

Take the chart above courtesy of Evernote, the popular virtual notebook and productivity suite. Note what happens to the Mac numbers come the Mac App Store launch day. Holy bejeebus.

Since the App Store launch, more than half of Evernote’s new users across all platforms are coming from the Mac. In fact, between Mac App Store launch and midnight on January 7th, Evernote saw 90,000 client downloads across both new and existing users.

Evernote CEO Phil Libin’s comments about these numbers indicate that his company is rethinking their entire strategy based on these numbers.

“It’s a very big deal […] We initially thought that since so much of our user base was coming from mobile, that was the key distribution platform. But maybe it isn’t mobile that’s important, maybe it’s the well-designed app store.

What’s the end game? Libin thinks that eventually, the Mac App Store is going to account for 95% of Mac software distribution, and that serial numbers will soon be a thing of the past.

With its lower prices and ease of use and installation, the Mac App Store is undeniably a huge win for consumers… but it’s shaping up to be an even bigger win for developers, who no longer need to worry about maintaining their own registration systems, download servers or anti-piracy schemes.

About the author:

John Brownlee is a Contributing Editor. He has also written for Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, VentureBeat, and Gizmodo. He lives in Boston with his wife and two parakeets. You can follow him here on Twitter.